Even in today’s digital world, customers prefer to call when reaching out to customer service. The familiarity and immediacy of speaking on the phone with real humans build trust between customer service executives and customers. The best call centres like Oraclecms use software which provides employees with different contexts, routes calls to appropriate agents, and helps execute omnichannel strategies.
But, managing phone support can be a severe challenge for many budding companies. While it is an effective way to assist customers, it is also the most tedious, hardest-to-measure, and least economic support channel.
Thus it would be best to have functional software for your call centre that permits your team to do the best job. Without good successful software, customer calls will go on hold while agents fail at answering queries.
Supervisors will also not manage chaos as they will not have any insights on call trends or volume. This blog helps in breaking down the kinds of software you need to build a full-proof call centre.
Software Features
Escalation management: The best software will permit you to manage the escalation process for urgent support queries of the customers. From the minute a customer makes a call, they should be directed to the appropriate branch at each step. The software must allow agents to downscale issues by granting refunds, discounts, and vouchers through software. Concisely, in that one single call, problems must be de-escalated in no time.
Call Scripting: If your company manages a substantial volume of calls about identical issues, you will need a call scripting attribute in your software. Call script or a chatbot picks up certain keywords in the emails and presents troubleshooting instructions. These instructions are based on usual answers. You must be able to personalize the customer response based on the script history.
The call scripting attribute comes in handy as it permits you to make standard scripts that all your agents can use. That way, customers have a consistent experience irrespective of the agent they reached.
IVR (interactive voice response): An IVR allows customers to interact with an automated voice before they reach your support team. While the customers might not appreciate speaking to a machine, some issues may get resolved through the IVR option. This automated voice may also help them with essential information that allows your team to serve them better.
An IVR feature helps in managing the call volume of the team and collecting relevant information automatically. When the customer reaches your human support team, all the information they need is available to them. Hence, the customer will not have to repeat their complaints.
Usage pricing: Take a closer look at the pricing per call on the software. Remember that the way your chosen software allocates the phone numbers, you may be charged a lot more than anticipated for each minute. Before applying to any new phone line, confirm the package inclusions. You must also ensure the cost of each minute and call.
Outgoing calls: Managers in a call centre have to have a finger on the call centre metrics pulse. These metrics include agent efficiency, call trends, and the volume of incoming calls. It is impossible to plan for posterity and manage scheduling without knowing how the team handles traffic fluctuations.
Reporting will identify the usual issues customers are calling with, besides demonstrating gaps in the support coverage and highlighting possible training opportunities.
Cloud calling: Call centres that operate on cloud networks need to have a calling system based on the cloud. This system will have to line up with online databases. VoIP or a voice-over-internet protocol is a cloud-based calling system that runs through a phone line rather than the internet.
A third-party provider provides this service. Installation and maintenance are cheaper in this system compared to regular landlines. That is because cloud-based calling does not require any on-premise hardware. You do not have to incur any infrastructure or maintenance costs as you do with traditional landlines.
CRM integration: It is frustrating for customers to repeat their problems to different support representatives. It is also disappointing to present a summary of the prior interactions. But, if agents already have a context about why the customer is calling, they can provide adequate support.
They can reference the previous interactions with the same customer, thus preventing the customers from repeating themselves. A CTI (computer-telephone integration) is a great call centre tool that pops up and identifies customers through their numbers. It also surfaces the past interactions via the browser.
Conclusion
When customers call teams, how do they get connected within seconds? With the help of call routing! Your call centre software must possess the automated call routing feature to deliver quick assistance to the callers. We hope our blog helped you understand what to focus on when evaluating software for call centres. If there is anything, you would like to add, please let us know in the comments.